JarOfManna

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                                         The Lord our Fortress

                                                       [Psalm 18]

Every fortress on earth has to be defended. None are infallible.

​God is our fortress but unlike the fortresses of the world, He is an active fortress who protects, defends and delivers us from our enemies. True rest and safety abide in Him.

Photo: Boban Simonovski

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                                                          קֶשֶׁת 

                                                        qesheth

                                                  Definition: a bow

The rainbow is a sign of the covenant God made with every living thing, that he would not destroy the earth by flood again.

"I have set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth." [Gen 9:13, ESV] 

By setting down His bow of war, God was making peace with man. If His bow is so beautiful, how much beauty awaits us...

Photo: DavidBrooke Martin, Unsplash

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The Lone Howl (2020) is a programmatic piece that narrates the story of the Assyrian invasion from the time of the prophet Isaiah. It fuses the following two features – the use of found sounds as compositional instruments and elements of Arab music.

Synopsis

In the 8th century BCE, the word of God came to His prophet Isaiah:

“Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.” [Isaiah 8:6-8, ESV]

Israel had turned away from God, to worship the pagan gods of the surrounding lands, offering their children into the burning arms of their metal idols. The Lone Howl narrates the warnings of the prophet about the coming destruction because of the stubbornness of the people, which led to the exile of the nation to Assyria.

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Composed in free-time, Hope in Waves was inspired by the persecution of Japanese Christians a few centuries ago. Some were tied to crosses along the coastal shore, left to die by drowning when the high tide came.

Two main elements of this piece:

I. Undulating waves and the unknown depth beneath.

II. Fear of drowning and immediate suffering yet hope through faith in God.